360 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
quently used for farm work, in or out of harness, 
and I could shoot from his back. In the peach 
season he would roam about the plantation, getting 
the fruit, of which he was very fond, by tugging at 
the lower branches of the trees and shaking it down 
in showers. One intensely dark night I was riding 
home on this horse. I came through a road with a 
wire fence on each side, two miles in length, and 
when I had got nearly to the end of this road my 
horse suddenly stopped short, uttering a succession 
of loud terrified snorts. I could see nothing but the 
intense blackness of the night before me, and tried 
to encourage him to go on. Touching him on the 
neck, I found his hair wet with the sudden profuse 
sweat of extreme fear. ‘he whip made no impres- 
sion on him. He continued to back away, his eyes 
apparently fixed on some object of horror just before 
him, while he trembled to such a degree that I was 
shaken in the saddle. He attempted several times 
to wheel round and run away, but I was determined ~ 
not to yield to him, and continued the contest. 
Suddenly, when I was beginning to despair of getting 
home by that road, he sprang forward, and regularly 
charged the (to me) inyisible object before him, and 
in another moment, when he had apparently passed 
it, taking the bit between his teeth he almost flew 
over the ground, never pausing till he brought me to 
my own door. When I dismounted his terror seemed 
gone, but he hung his head in a dejected manner, 
like a horse that has been under the saddle all day. 
I have never witnessed another such instance of 
almost maddening fear. His terror and apprehen- 
sion were like what we can imagine a man experi- 
encing at sight of a ghost in some dark solitary place. 
